BOOK OF THE MONTH
“If you haven't read hundreds of books, you are functionally illiterate, and you will be incompetent, because your personal experiences alone aren't broad enough to sustain you.”
-Jim "Mad Dog" Mattis
SEPTEMBER 2023
"It's strange to think about how quickly a human sense can disappear when it falls into disuse. Even when it is the most defining characteristic of a person, simply not exercising the neural muscle over a short time can make someone entirely dependent on external resources."
What Doesn't Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude, and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strength
by Scott Carney
Investigative journalist and anthropologist Scott Carney takes up the challenge to find out: Can we hack our bodies and use the environment to stimulate our inner biology? Helping him in his search for the answers is Dutch fitness guru Wim Hof, whose ability to control his body temperature in extreme cold has sparked a whirlwind of scientific study. Carney also enlists input from an Army scientist, a world-famous surfer, the founders of an obstacle course race movement, and ordinary people who have documented how they have cured autoimmune diseases, lost weight, and reversed diabetes. In the process, he chronicles his own transformational journey as he pushes his body and mind to the edge of endurance, a quest that culminates in a record-bending, 28-hour climb to the snowy peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro wearing nothing but a pair of running shorts and sneakers.
AUGUST 2023
Leadership (verb) lead·er·ship: Helping others arrive at an end result they could not achieve on their own.
Lead Well: 10 Steps to Successful and Sustainable Leadership
by Ken Falke
Whether you’ve led for years or are new to the role, being a leader is a responsibility that doesn’t come with instructions. Many leadership books focus strictly on tips for the business world. Others offer analysis but lack strategy, while most are confounding and complicated. To be a leader in today’s world, whether in your personal or professional life, you need a simple philosophy—one with proven results.
In Lead Well, leadership consultant and serial entrepreneur Ken Falke introduces you to the ten principles you need to become an impactful leader. With tactics that are easy to understand and even easier to implement, this book is packed with Ken’s insight from more than four decades in business, nonprofit, and military leadership. You’ll learn how to be the best version of yourself before inspiring others to contribute ideas and accomplish goals. Good leaders know that character and morals matter as much as profit and loss. Lead Well is your practical guide for understanding the leader within and becoming the person you need and want to be.
JULY 2023
“He didn’t ask for mistake-free games. He didn’t demand that his players never lose. He asked for full preparation and full effort from them. “Did I win? Did I lose? Those are the wrong questions. The correct question is: Did I make my best effort?” If so, he says, “You may be outscored but you will never lose.”
― Carol Dweck, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
by Carol Dweck
After decades of research, world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol S. Dweck, Ph.D., discovered a simple but groundbreaking idea: the power of mindset. In this brilliant book, she shows how success in school, work, sports, the arts, and almost every area of human endeavor can be dramatically influenced by how we think about our talents and abilities. People with a fixed mindset--those who believe that abilities are fixed--are less likely to flourish than those with a growth mindset--those who believe that abilities can be developed. Mindset reveals how great parents, teachers, managers, and athletes can put this idea to use to foster outstanding accomplishment....
JUNE 2023
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
- Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last
Leaders Eat Last
by Simon Sinek
Leaders Eat Last examines the impact of effective leadership, and its effect on organizational culture. Work culture is reflective of leadership, and creating a "Circle of Safety" prioritizes empathy and support, so that individuals and the company thrives.
MAY 2023
“My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.”
― Tara Westover, Educated
Educated: A Memoir
by Tara Westover
Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, Tara Westover was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom. Her family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education, and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent. When another brother got himself into college, Tara decided to try a new kind of life. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge University. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.
APRIL 2023
“I knew that if I allowed fear to overtake me, my journey was doomed.” — Cheryl Strayed, Wild
Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail
by Cheryl Strayed
At twenty-two, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. In the wake of her mother’s death, her family scattered and her own marriage was soon destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she made the most impulsive decision of her life. With no experience or training, driven only by blind will, she would hike more than a thousand miles of the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State—and she would do it alone.
Told with suspense and style, sparkling with warmth and humor, Wild powerfully captures the terrors and pleasures of one young woman forging ahead against all odds on a journey that maddened, strengthened, and ultimately healed her.
MARCH 2023
“Why do we have to listen to our hearts?” the boy asked.
“Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you will find your treasure.” — Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist
The Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho's enchanting novel has inspired a devoted following around the world. This story, dazzling in its powerful simplicity and soul-stirring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried near the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest. No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles in his path. But what starts out as a journey to find worldly goods turns into a discovery of the treasure found within. Lush, evocative, and deeply humane, the story of Santiago is an eternal testament to the transforming power of our dreams and the importance of listening to our hearts.
FEBRUARY 2023
Man's Search for Meaning
by Viktor E. Frankl
This seminal book, which has been called “one of the outstanding contributions to psychological thought” by Carl Rogers and “one of the great books of our time” by Harold Kushner, has been translated into more than fifty languages and sold over sixteen million copies. “An enduring work of survival literature,” according to the New York Times, Viktor Frankl’s riveting account of his time in the Nazi concentration camps, and his insightful exploration of the human will to find meaning in spite of the worst adversity, has offered solace and guidance to generations of readers since it was first published in 1946. At the heart of Frankl’s theory of logotherapy (from the Greek word for “meaning”) is a conviction that the primary human drive is not pleasure, as Freud maintained, but rather the discovery and pursuit of what the individual finds meaningful. Today, as new generations face new challenges and an ever more complex and uncertain world, Frankl’s classic work continues to inspire us all to find significance in the very act of living, in spite of all obstacles.
JANUARY 2023
Struggle Well: Thriving in the Aftermath of Trauma
by Ken Falke & Josh Goldberg
Your struggle may come in different forms, and be given one of many different names, such as anxiety, depression, addiction, and/or PTSD. No matter how much you or a loved one is struggling, or what it is called, one thing is almost certainly clear: you aren’t living the life you desire or deserve. Still, there is hope. By embracing the struggle, rather than fighting it, you can stop surviving and start thriving. Ken Falke and Josh Goldberg train combat veterans battling PTSD to understand and achieve Posttraumatic Growth (PTG). PTG helps you discover opportunities from times of struggle, and this book provides actionable strategies for making peace with past experiences, living in the present, and planning for a great future. Through Ken and Josh’s work, thousands have transformed struggle into profound strength and lifelong growth. Now it is your turn. It’s time to learn to Struggle Well.